I am a number in a system built by humans with authority operated by humans with emotions and faults

I am a number.
I am a number in a system.
I am a number in a system built by humans with authority.

Last year I came across the concept of Interpretive Labor after receiving this link about distillation and research debt from another operations engineer who I met briefly at a conference. Of course the link hole ran deep and took me to this research article that talks about bureaucratic incompetence from the University of London in 2006. This is an excerpt from the abstract:
"...the responsibility to do the interpretive labor required to allow the powerful to operate oblivious to much of what is going on around them, falls on the powerless, who thus tend to empathize with the powerful far more than the powerful do with them"
I think this might be a bit confusing, so let me describe what I took away from the aforementioned link hole.

  • I'm often considered a subject matter "expert" on topics at work. I also hold some level of authority. I feel frustrated and tired at times when I try to teach concepts to others and they just don't seem to get it. The "thing" I am experiencing is tied to interpretive labor. I didn't consider it part of my job to be a good "teacher" until it was necessary. Since I read these articles I have spent a lot more time thinking about how I can be a better "distiller", reduce interpretive labor, and maximize my students comprehension. When I meet new school teachers, this is the thing I talk to them about because I am interested in their approaches. We can all do better.
  • People who hold authority over others because of bureaucracy are all over the place. Think about the basic government paperwork you need to fill out to live in your society. These people hold the keys to the processes that are essential to some of your basic life needs. What happens when someone who holds this authority over you is not properly trained or is having a bad day and tells you to do the wrong thing, or a thing that's just... not quite right? You do it. You do it because they told you to, even if you think it's not the right thing. Here, this is most prevalent in the systems that were built as paper then adapted for computers. Operators are bound by some basic rules but make procedural mistakes all the time. Think - where you register your car and when you have to travel, especially across a border. Think - about your company's HR department. Think - about being an immigrant, and the endless paperwork that entails. 


The problem is, I am not a number.
I am a human.
I am bound to the rules of bureaucracy, and sometimes it makes me act stupid. And that's annoying.

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